Thursday, December 28, 2006

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - With their icy Arctic habitat melting, polar bears need new protections under the Endangered Species Act, Bush administration officials said on Wednesday in a decision that raised questions about the president's skeptical stance on global warming.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that the bears, a white-furred icon of the North, be listed as "threatened" under the act. Such a listing would force government agencies to ensure they take no action that jeopardizes the animal's existence.

That in turn could pressure the government to consider tougher measures to clean up the air because most scientists believe carbon dioxide emissions cause global warming. Bush administration officials, however, indicated there would be no new curbs on oil drilling in Alaska or limits on greenhouse-gas emissions.

Yea, there's a real effort to save the polar bear: list it as threatened, but do nothing to remove the threat.

Look, the polar bear is doomed. There are only 25,000 left in the world, and their habitat is diminishing each day. The expedited melting of the polar ice cap, coupled with the total disappearance of the summertime snow pack in the arctic, has made life impossible (unbearable?) for the polar bear. Polar bears drown regularly now, a phenomenon unheard of even a decade ago.

Some of the more idiotic reactions:

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said an endangered species listing could not be used to trigger new limits to greenhouse-gas emissions:"That whole argument of climate change is beyond the scope of the Endangered Species Act."

"All of the 30 years of experience that we've had on the North Slope has proven to us that the oil industry has no impact," said Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

D-huh? First they tell us, in response to concerns about global warming, that you can't measure its impact in a human lifetime, and now they're saying there cannot have been any impact in our lifetimes?

Meaning they "have measured it" and found no effect? Who the fuck are they kidding?

Worse still than the melting ice pack drowning bears is that their cubs cannot survive even the milder winters, ironically, because the parents can't catch enough food to feed them sufficiently to build fat deposits. Polar bears feed by using the ice pack as a diving board to catch prey swimming under the ice.

Global warming is a fact. It's been called the single biggest threat to human existence (by a conservative television network, no less! The History Channel), and it's happening. Right now. We see the evidence all around us, and scientific studies have verified our anecdotal observations: the planet is getting warmer, and it is due to man's intervention.

As someone from the Natural Resources Defense Council pointed out this morning, the polar bear is really the "canary in the coal mine" because an animal this high on the food chain dying off means it could happen to us, too.

We can't wait any longer. This threat is far more important than even a terrorist attack, because this is imminent, nation-- hell, worldwide, and affects even those high falutin' elitist neo-cons and their orc minions who will die right alongside those of us doing the fighting.

Write your Congressman and Senators, ESPECIALLY if he or she is a Republican! Write to the White House. Let them know what you feel and how you don't want to see this happen.

And for your own peace of mind, start helping out on your own: invest in alternative energy sources. Ask your energy dealer to switch you to renewable, non-polluting sources like wind and hydroelectric. Drive slower and more carefully and use less gas.

And for God's sake, spend a few bucks and buy your carbon footprint back for Mother Earth! She's given you so much for free...estimates are that if mankind had to produce the raw material and energy sources, even the drinking water and air, that nature provides to us for free, it would cost us $63 TRILLION annually. That's twice the combined gross domestic product of each and every single nation on the planet!

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing